Four days before President Obama unveiled a sweeping $60 billion vision of free community college for millions of Americans, his staff reached out to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary and a Republican authority on the issue.

But even as they invited Mr. Alexander to ride with Mr. Obama aboard Air Force One for the announcement in Knoxville, Tenn., last month, White House aides made it clear that they were informing the senator about the plan, not consulting him. In return, Mr. Alexander was uncompromising: He would not support the president’s big idea.

“They let us know what they were planning; they didn’t ask for advice on developing a proposal,” Mr. Alexander said in an interview. “I would have suggested a different approach.”

That "different approach" of course would be "and if you want that passed, here's what you're going to have to give up, starting with Obamacare."

Mr. Obama has so far found little traction with Congress on major domestic policy proposals related to child care, paid sick leave, tax policy and higher education. His legislative aides have struggled to find Republicans willing to endorse the legislation. Few Republicans say they have even been approached.

“You would think that he would have reached out by now to people like me who have a background on it,” said Representative Bradley Byrne, Republican of Alabama, who served for years as the chancellor of that state’s community college system. “None of that has happened.”

Mr. Byrne said he opposed Mr. Obama’s approach, but was eager to discuss other options. “It’s not like I’m hiding,” he said. “Everyone knows who I am and my background.”

Other Republicans on Capitol Hill say that if Mr. Obama’s aim is to get things done, he will have to abandon many of his domestic policy ideas to focus on areas of mutual interest like trade and a business tax overhaul.

“We think their time is much better spent on things other than the liberal, pie-in-the-sky ideas,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

So, Republicans are saying that Obama hasn't consulted them, and at the same time, Republicans are saying that he will have to abandon his entire agenda in order to deal with only what Republicans want to do.

This, as it has been for six year now, has been Republican "compromise". A black president on his knees, in his place, assenting to the GOP agenda.

Given that the stated Republican goal is to block every initiative President Obama proposes, why would anyone expect President Obama to "reach out" to Republicans now? A competent press corps would be asking Republicans questions such as: "Republicans have consistently refused to work with President Obama on any of his other initiatives, and are actively seeking to undermine his foreign policy. Why would Republicans expect President Obama to give them advance notice of any of his proposals? Wouldn't it be logical for President Obama to have concluded that reaching out to Republicans was at best futile, and at worst merely giving Republicans more time to plan the initiative's destruction?

The full Republican strategy is "If you don't do what we tell you, we'll punish you. If you obey us, we'll mock you as a spineless weakling - and punish you even more." It's sort of a bad cop / worse cop tactic.

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With Republicans controlling the House and Senate and the Trump Regime now in charge of the Executive, there's still a crumbling global economy imperiling the world, rising nationalism and deadly racism across Europe and Asia, a seemingly endless war against terror, a federal government nobody trusts or believes in, global climate change putting us on the brink of destruction and a Village media that barely does its job on even the best day.

Needless to say there's a lot of Stupid out there when we need solutions. Dangerous levels of Stupid.

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